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CATEGORISATIONS USED IN STUDYING INDIGENOUS DANCE THROUGH THE TALAWA TECHNQUE

This guide is a form with a set of questions/information through which the dance should be assessed, when trying to categorize dance from Africa and the Diaspora. It provides context and information that will help in assessing the nature and importance/function/significance of the dance, framing and cultural signifiers that go with it. This provides information that forms the foundation on which to dialogue and engage with the culture of origin, and can in some cases help with referencing, citing, and appropriating elements of the dance and culture in a way that does not lead to misappropriation and that is respectful of indigenous knowledge systems. Please categorize the dance/s in question by running it through these 22 points. Many dances tick multiple boxes. If you are unsure or do not know how it fits into one point this provides you with a guideline as to what should be investigated further.

This guideline was developed while researching for the Talawa Technique which forms the basis for Tabanka Dance Ensembles movement vocabulary and technical training.

The TALAWA TECHNIQUE CONSISTS OF:

81 African dances

56 Trans-Atlantic Diaspora dances

Chosen from 286 investigated dances.

 

HELPFUL PRE-CATEGORIZATION:

Definition of African dance:

African dance can be defined as a collection of dances that are imbued meaning, infused purposely with rhythm, and connected to the ritual, events, occasions, and mythologies of a specific people. African dance is theater in that it involves song, drama, masquerade traditions, and music. An understanding of traditions must be what provides a foundation for contemporary expressions. Generalizations about African dance as an absolute are inappropriate and inaccurate. It is useful for the purposes of this document to speak about African culture as an entity. This simply means that these dances originate in Africa and share cultures where traditionally dance is integral to and central to the society. This document acknowledges and appreciates the differences and contradictions that exist in and among the many cultures that are discussed throughout.

African, African Diaspora, and TransAtlantic African Diaspora dances are many and have a wide range of categorizations. Before one goes into the deeper analysis of the dances it can be helpful to pre-categorize them according to function and/or type.

When looking at styles deemed to be “traditional” the following three categories can be helpful:

  • Traditional: dances are those that embody the cultural values of a particular society, are acknowledged as being of that society, and adhere to specific customs and ritual
  • Neotraditional: Neotraditional dances are those dances that are created in the spirit or likeness of traditional dances but do not necessarily come from that particular society and, as a result, are not bound to all the aesthetic and cultural rules of that society; recognition of the dance by the masses; and formal or institutionalized instruction either in the courts, by private instruction, or communal learning vis-à-vis festivals. It is generational and time honored. Some examples of classical African dances are Lamban, Lindjen and Sabaar from Senegambia, Guinea, and Malian regions; and Fanga from Liberia, Adowa from Ghana
  • Stylized: Dances that are stylized for stage and artistic performance and or that are for presentation for outsiders more so than for people that come from within the culture. Here even more than in the neotraditional cultural rules, authenticity, and other such frames are more loosely referenced.

 

African Dance Generally fall under one or more of the following categories:

  • Stilt Dances
  • Mask Dances
  • Military Dances
  • War Dances
  • Martial art dances
  • Rites-of-Passage Dances
  • Middle passage dances
  • Resistance to enslavement dances
  • Nation building dances (post slavery)
  • Harvest dances
  • Story & Myth Dances
  • Social Dances
  • Recreational dances
  • Ceremonial Dances
  • Funeral dances
  • Ancient court dances
  • Work dances
  • Healing dances
  • Religious dances
  • Spiritual Dances
  • Ritual Dances
  • National & ethnic identity dances
  • Carnivalesque Dances

Once you have placed the dance in question into one or more of the previously mentioned categories (or made others to suit your purposes) You can continue working down the following checklist. The previous categorization will help you do this, and will make it easier to compare your findings and to see overall trends or distinguishing factors.

 

1.SACRED

Does it fit into one or more of the following classifications:

  • EMBODYING THE SUPERNATURAL
    • Inner transformation
    • External transformation (mask/costume)
  • REPRESENTATION OF DIVINITY
  • INITIATION – TRANSITION – RITES OF PASSAGE

 

2.SECULAR

Does it fit into one or more of the following classifications:

  • Representation of deities and spirits as entertainment
  • Celebration of an event; birth, death, marriage, harvest, war
  • Education-initiation
  • Courtship (semba) 
  • Recreation
  • Political action
  • Social commentary
  • Health and healing 
  • Work
  • A special groups dances 
  • Western theatre setting

 

3.PARTICIPATION RECRUITMENT PATTERN

ASCRIPTION (what an individual is in terms of some attribution by others)

Please fill out how it relates to the following. Only where applicable. Age, gender, ethnic group of participating dancer often provides much information about the function of the dance and the symbolism of the adhering costume.

  1. Age
  2. Gender
  3. Ethnic group
  4. Family
  5. Marital status
  6. Socio-economic class
  7. Political affiliations

ACHIEVEMENT (what an individual is on the basis of self-effort)

  1. Dance
  2. Non-dance (eg. earning the right to enter a society)

AGENCY

  1. Group
  2. Pair
  3. Individual
  4. Turn taking 

ECONOMICS

  1. Amateur
  2. Professional
  3. Sponsored
  4. Gratitude (tipping from the satisfied audience)

PARTICIPATION MOTIVATION

  1. Required
  2. Expected
  3. Voluntary
  4. Paid

PARTICIPATION ACTION

  1. Dance initiated (doing)
  2. Dance acted upon (becoming, as in possession)

CONSCIOUSNESS

  1. TRANSCENDENTAL ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
  • Secular (achieve extraordinary metaphysical-physical experience associated with self-extension and exploration)
  • Religious (associated with deities, spirits, essence) 
  1. TEMPORAL-COGNITIVE
  • Exploratory (example: as in how to be a proper parent)
  • Control (maintaining cultural patterns and managing tensions, attaining goals, adaptations and integration; initiating, )
  • Physical preparation (for work, war, sex etc)
  1. TEMPORAL/TRANSCENDENTAL(one form leading to another, intermeshing, alternating) 
  1. RELATION TO THE STATUS QUO

Tradition is never stagnant and is always in movement. Not projecting negative western imperial attitudes on to indigenous traditions is important. Traditions, however old are an active part of the tapestry that forms both what we deem modern, and contemporary. All cultures have a claim to modernity, and to contemporaneity, values which must be seen through the lens of cultural context. Make a point of analyzing in what way the tradition in question relates to itself, other traditions, preservation and status quo. Is the function to for example:

  1. Preserve for example traditions
  2. Challenge for example traditions
  3. Transform
  4. Avenue of social mobility

5.PLACE (HOME, COMPOUND, MARKET, FOREST, RIVERSIDE, BEACH, CITY, STAGE)

  1. Rural
  2. Urban
  3. Foreign country

6.TIME

  1. Regularly occurring
  2. Occasional
  3. Seasonal
  4. Celestial
  5. Special celebration

7.ORIGIN (DIASPORA AND AFRICAN RETENTION)

This relates especially to African and African Diaspora dance. If not applicable use this as a template in order to make new categories that are.

Is the dance and being performed fitting into one or more of the following categories? (Own ethnic group relates to the performers perspective, not your own).

  1. Own ethnic group
  2. Other African ethnic group
  3. Non-African
  4. African Diaspora
  5. Other African Diaspora fusion(two or more African Diaspora dances mixing/fusioning)
  6. African and non-African fusion
  7. Diaspora and African fusion
  8. African and other non-white
  9. Diaspora and other non-white

 

Note; sometimes makes sense to separate African continental diaspora from colony/transAtlantic diaspora, additional categories will then be; 

  1. TransAtlantic Diaspora and African fusion
  2. TransAtlantic African Diaspora
  3. Other Transatlantic African Diaspora Fusion (two or more TransAtlantice African Diaspora dances mixing/fusioning)
  4. TransAtlantic Diaspora and other Non- white

8.DEVELOPMENT

  1. Independently invented
  2. Imposed
  3. Borrowed voluntarily
  4. Elaborated creation

9.TRANSFORMATION

  • Syncretism (a blend of cultures – ethnic groups, traditional/modern)
  • Change over time

10.ACQUISITION OF DANCE

Pedagogic/Didactic approach:

  • Direction
  • Modelling
  • Supervised practice and coaching
  • Enabling discovery
  • Individual creativity
  • Communal creativity

11.EXISTENCE INFLUENCE

  • Agriculturalists
  • Fishing
  • Pastoralist
  • Plantation
  • Colonial
  • Nation-building
  • Urban

12.PATTERN OF MOTION, POSE AND EXHIBITION OF INTENTION OF MOVE

A) BODY PARTS AND MOVEMENT EMPHASIZED

  1. Hips;pelvic rotation (5,6,7), swing, thrust, tremble
  2. Shoulders; shimmy, placing, extraction/subtraction, alternate punch, rotation
  3. Elbow and forearm; hinge, stretch, slash, flap
  4. Arms; brandish, slash, swing, rotate, stretch
  5. Knees; bend and straighten
  6. Torso(1,2,3,4) flatback, arches, erect, rotate
  7. Chest; pop, swing, rotate, lift, contract
  8. Feet
  9. Legs

B) LOCOMOTION(moving from one place to another)

  1. Walk
  2. Step
  3. Shuffle
  4. Run
  5. Skip
  6. Hop
  7. Jump
  8. Slide
  9. Sweep

 

C) MOVEMENT TRANSFORMATION

  • Change spatial ground pattern through location (doing)
  • Change in body space/state through swelling, spreading, undulating (becoming)

 

D) GESTURE

(movement of part of the body not supported through the whole body)

examples; rotate hand (eg. twirl cloth), hand signs etc

13.TIME

  1. Pace (slow/fast)
  2. Length of movement (extended, shortened)
  3. Accent
  4. Meter (single/multimetre)
  5. Polyrhythm

14.SPACE

  1. Size (big/small)
  2. Focus of eyes
  3. Focus of body
  4. Focus of attention
  5. Free form
  6. Physical link
  7. Circles
  8. Lines
  9. Levels; High, middle, low, floor level
  10. Organized

15.EFFORT

  1. Strong/weak
  2. Bound/free
  3. Shape/flow

16.STRUCTURE OF DANCE

  1. Set choreographic pattern
  2. Improvisation
  3. Repetition
  4. Alteration of components

17.PERFORMER-AUDIENCE INTERACTION

  1. Separation
  2. Merge
  3. Call and response

18.AURAL SETTING

  1. Musical accompaniment
  2. Dancer self-accompaniment
  3. Dancer follows musician/independent musician follows a dancer
  4. Spoken word
  5. Body instruments
  6. Vocal sounds
  7. Body percussion

19.VISUAL SETTING

COSTUME

  1. Representational
  2. Utilitarian
  3. Relation to the Body
    • Reveals
    • Conforms
    • Conceals
    • Reproportions
    • Extends
    • Restricts

20.DEVICES OF ENCODING/DECODING MOVEMENT

  • Concretization
  • Icon
  • Stylization
  • Metaphor
  • Metronomy
  • Actualization

21. SPHERES OF ENCODING/DECODING MOVEMENT EMPHASIZED

  1. Event
  2. Body
  3. Whole performance
  4. Discursive performance
  5. Specific movement
  6. Intermesh with another medium
  7. Presence (charisma)

22.CULTURES OWON PERCEPTION OF DANCE

  • Differentiation into institutionally bounded genres (types of dance)
  • Prestige (hierarchy of dances)
  • Aesthetic criteria